Kalinga Literary Festival 2021 begins: Srinivas Udgata, Arun Kamal, Divya Dutta receive Awards

Bhubaneswar: The eighth edition of the Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) was inaugurated here today by Odisha Tourism Minister, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi.

While speaking on the occasion Panigrahi said that for the last eight years Kalinga Literary Festival has set a national benchmark in literary festivals. KLF is well known for its socially relevant themes and in a way compels all ‘creative’ people to think and articulate ‘the contemporary’.

Business journalist Tamal Bandopadhyay, Bollywood actress Divya Dutta and Sudha Murty, wife of Infosys founder Narayan Murty and former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi were among others who received awards for their books on the inaugural day of Kalinga Literary Festival 2021 in the temple city of Bhubaneswar.

Padmashree Srinivas Udgata was given with Kalinga Literary Award and Arun Kamal was awarded with Kalinga Literary International award.

Bigger than ever before, the eighth edition of the festival will bring nationally and internationally acclaimed names on one platform to discuss, debate and explore commonalities in the diverse voices in literature, said Rashmi Ranjan Parida, the founder-director of KLF.

A total of 30 awards were given away to eminent authors and translators of repute by the organisers of Kalinga Literary Festival on its eighth edition held here. The names were decided for the past two years since the festival could not be organised last year due to Civid pandemic.

Tamal Bandopadhyay was awarded the best writer in the Economy category for his book “Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy”.

For the non-fiction category, Sandeep Bamzai’s book “Princestan: How Nehru, Patel and Mountbatten Made India” was selected among other two books in the same category.

For the Children’s literature section Sudha Murty was selected for her book called “Grandparents’ Bag of Stories”. Rashid Kidwai’s book “Bharat Ke Pradhan Mantri” was selected for the autobiography category.

Former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi was selected for his book on Mahatma Gandhi while Bollywood actress Divya Dutta was awarded with Kalinga Literary (Woman Writer) Award during the event.

Speaking about her career in Bollywood and about rejections in her initial days Dutta said, “I am now romancing with heroes in my 40s which I had dreamt of during my 20s. But I am doing it because I know that the work you do will remain forever if you have invested your passion in it.”

While commenting that the movie ‘Veer Zara’ has been a milestone in her career, she said the inspirations have compelled her to write her book “Stars in My Sky.”

The three-day extravaganza of literature, art, culture and conversation will feature poetry sessions, panel discussions, talk shows and many more in 45 sessions.